Rising star: A girl visits an astronomy museum in Beijing on Wednesday. With Asian nations' successes in space this year, the established space powers are concerned that a dangerous intra-Asian rivalry in space could lie ahead. | AFP-JIJI

Established powers wary about dangerous rivalry as China catches up

Asia’s year in space triggers applause — and also worry

PARIS – The past 12 months will be remembered as the year when Asia’s economic powerhouses barged their way into the elite club of space-farers.

South Korea placed its first satellite in orbit, Japan launched a new three-stage rocket and India set its eyes on Mars, dispatching its first scout to the red planet.

Heading the pack in 2013, though, is China. It carried out another manned trip as a prelude to assembling a space station by 2020, announced plans to launch an orbital laboratory around 2015 and sent a rover to the moon, in mankind’s first soft lunar landing in 37 years.

Analysts say the long string of feats reflects the growing financial clout and prowess of Asia’s foremost economies.

But they also sounded a note of caution. Alarm bells are starting to ring in the established but cash-strapped space powers, and a dangerous intra-Asian rivalry in space could lie ahead.

Militarization of space, rather than damaged prestige or injured pride, is the biggest worry, they say.

“Both Russia and the U.S. are concerned about the ongoing shift in the state of play,” said Marco Aliberti of the European Space Policy Institute in Vienna, Austria.

“In particular, they are haunted by the rise of China as a space power, and the implications of this rise for their positions and global security.”

Russia, which helped China in the earlier stages of its space program, “has now started to perceive China as a potential threat,” Aliberti said in an email.

“As for the U.S., it can be said that their triumphant history and current position in space make them extremely sensitive to any potential challengers. . . . China looks to have replaced the USSR in American security calculations.”

Russian analyst Vadim Lukashevich said Russia, after helping China in its space development a dozen or so years ago, had “badly underestimated” the Chinese program.

There was a tendency among Russian experts to joke that China’s exploits were almost a carbon copy of the Soviet glory era half a century ago.

“If we don’t change our mocking attitude toward what China is doing, in five to 10 years’ time, it will be a two-horse race in space between Beijing and Washington, and Russia will be nowhere,” said Lukashevich.

U.S. expert John Logsdon, professor emeritus at the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, said the United States fretted over what lies beneath China’s much-trumpeted civilian activities in space.

In 2007, China tested an anti-satellite weapon, destroying an old satellite in orbit with an intercepter, triggering an outcry about the huge addition to perilous space junk.

According to several specialist websites, China in May this year also tested part of a new anti-satellite ballistic missile.

“This country is very concerned about China’s growing military space capabilities, since they could threaten the ability of the United States to operate its national security space systems free from threat of interference,” said Logsdon.

“I would imagine that Europe and Russia have the same concern.”

They are not the only ones looking anxiously at China.

“I think that China has provoked a major space race in Asia,” said Morris Jones, an independent space analyst based in Australia.

“You’ve got India watching what the Chinese do very carefully. You’ve also recently had the fact that even the South Koreans have accelerated plans.”

Many countries have plan for moon landing but they do not have the ability. I don’t see there is a space race with China because no other country in Asia has the required ability to make it to the moon at the moment. It should take another 10 years or more if Japan or India want to land on the moon.